McDonalds

Busy day, today! I’ve been reading a new comic book series the last year called Amoras. It’s a six book series that tells a Suske & Wiske story in a dystopian future. There’s time travel, crime, death, blood and a fair amount of cursing and swearing. Suffice to say, it’s definitely not meant for kids. I really like the storyline and how it looks. A while ago I saw on Facebook that the Stripmuseum (comic museum) in Groningen would show an exhibition of Amoras pieces.

Since I am now the proud owner of a museum card, I decided it was time to go see. I asked Gert if he wanted to come as well, but he declined. So, this morning I made my way to Groningen. I arrived around lunch time and felt a wee bit peckish. The Stripmuseum is located above the McDonalds. So rather than go look for a place, I just hit the Mac for a quick and easy lunch.

After, I got my ticket for the museum and started looking around. I began with the regular collection that was divided into themes. First there was a section on comic art used in music and theater posters, other promotional imagery and album covers. Then it led me chronologically through the development of comics in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Once through all that, you end up on the top floor where there’s space for the changing exhibition. Which in this case was the Amoras one. It was interesting to see the process. There were many storyboards, sketches, and line-art pieces from all six of the books. The only thing I thought was a shame was the order of display. They went mostly by sort of art, and then chronologically. So, storyboards book one, storyboards book two and so on, then sketches book one, sketches book two, rinse and repeat. I would have liked to see the order from idea to end product. So the storyboard for a page, then its sketch, the line-art, and then the coloured page. So you can really see how it changes before getting to its final point.

When I got out, I made my way to the centre of the city to meet up with Gert and see X-Men: Apocalypse. I’d heard some bad stuff about it, but I liked it. The build-up wasn’t always strong enough. I didn’t notice, for instance, that the end battle was the end battle until it was a good bit underway. And I would have liked to see a bit more detail on the origin of Apocalypse.

Then it was time for some dinner. We decided to go to the Frietwinkel. This is a fairly new place that does fries. It’s all about the organic and the fresh. They literally cut fries from fresh potatoes right there instead of using frozen pre-cut fries. And they serve fries with pulled chicken. Which is fucking delicious. The place also looks rustic nice with old stools, crates on the walls and such.

Right after that we went back to the Pathé. This time to see the Angry Birds movie. It’s not very good. The only thing I found quite funny was this one scene, a homage to the slow-down-time-in-the kitchen scene in the previous X-Men movie. And they also did a sort of homage to that scene in X-Men: Apocalypse. So that was a fun coincidence. Other than that, it’s a generic animated kids movie.

After buying another cheap day ticket for the train last month, I suggested to Gert we should go to Amsterdam again. He immediately mentioned he’d never been to the Van Gogh museum. And just like that, we had plans. And yesterday was the day to execute said plans.

We left Grunn early so we would be in Amsterdam somewhat early as well. We arrived at the central station around 10:30 and, priorities, went to Starbucks for a drink. We then got on a tram to the museum square where the Van Gogh Museum is.

When we got out, the sun was shining, the weather was nice (albeit cold) and across the field we could see the museum. As we crossed we saw a lot of people outside the museum. When we got close enough, we saw it was the queue.

And not just a queue to get in the museum, no, the queue to get a ticket. Every minute or so, yellow-jacketed hosts would let another handful of people through to the queue at the door where they could go in to buy their tickets.

We had talked about pre-ordering tickets online but forgot to do so. But it gave us an idea. We checked with a host, and indeed, it would work. So, on Gert’s phone we ordered tickets online. He immediately got them in his mailbox and we could skip the queue and go straight to the entrance 😀

Disappointingly it was not allowed to take pictures in the museum. Not even just flash-less pics, no, not at all. This did not stop us from sneaking in a few phone pictures anyway.

The building has several floors that thematically lead you through Van Gogh’s life. Starting with an Eye to Eye section with nothing but self portraits to his final works before committing suicide. There were sections for his early work after he had decided he wanted to be an artist, leading up to the Potato Eaters, his moving to France where he got in contact with impressionism and such making his work lighter and brighter. Also his Japanese inspired works, his period in the institution, and the brief period after he got out and before he killed himself.

Our second plan for the day was to hit the book shops. When in Amsterdam we also tend to go to the American Book Center. This time around we decided to add The Book Exchange to the mix. This is a large second-hand bookstore with nothing but English works. Since this shop would close earlier, it became our first stop after we finished in the museum. We got on the tram again, but accidentally picked the one going the wrong way. So we got off again two stops further. Reassessing our priorities, we hit another Starbucks for a drink, and for Gert to charge his phone.

After a well deserved break, we got back on the tram, the right one this time, and headed for the city center. From there it was just a few minutes to get to The Book Exchange. We dove straight into the basement where they keep the scifi and fantasy books. I picked out some Star Trek books and then went around the room alphabetically. I found several books that had been on my list, or are sequels to works I have. I found Elizabeth Bear’s first books (the Jenny Casey trilogy) that I’ve been wanting. I found the follow-up to C.F. Bentley’s Harmony and also the sequels to Robert Sawyer’s Hominids. I’ve been looking for these last two for ages! They also had a fun Stargate book, and two Kim Harrison books that I still needed. And, in a surprise, twist, part four in that trilogy I got at the local thrift store on Wednesday…

A quiet hour later, we both had our arms full of books and decided to call it quits for now. With packed bags we stood outside and quickly agreed to skip the American Book Center for today. We walked back towards the city center. Gert bought himself a pink waffle with sprinkles. (I tasted, it’s ridiculously sweet)
In the morning we had sort of decided to eat Asian for dinner. But after what we spent on books, we decided on cheap food. KFC was our first choice but it was insanely crowded so we skedaddled. McDonalds was close by so we tried that. The first one we found was out of Maestro Burgers so we picked another one just a few hundred yards further. This one did have the Maestro’s, which are glorious.

After eating, we headed back to the station to go home. It was a good day 🙂

Yesterday, Nienke and I went to the movies with Ingrid for that second movie for her birthday last year… The plan back then was to go see Step Up 5, but we couldn’t plan it before the movie stopped showing. And now all three of us wanted to see Wild.

I met up with Nienke after work, and we made our way to McDonalds to meet with Ingrid, and eat. It had been ages since I’d been there, so it was real fun to go. I had some of the newer things they introduced since last I’d been there.

Afterwards we headed for the cinema and saw Wild. I liked the movie, but it didn’t really speak to me. The scenery was very nice, Reese Witherspoon did a really good job as she ususally does. I understood the character motivations, rationally and emotionally, and the flashbacks were good. The secondary characters were okay to good. But the pacing felt off somehow, a bit too jumpy? Too many short bits in a row maybe. I can’t really put my finger on it.

After the movie we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways home.